From Software The Dark Souls II Megathread™

[praetor]

they're so boring to fight that 99% of the time i just cheese them with poison arrows/knives (and you fight them in the memories anyway)

 

[Murk]

+1 to poison arrows/knives, dung for toxic, or magic.

If you have no 'stats' for magic, then just buy poison/toxic cloud pyro and throw on an attunement ring.

 

[Seaking4]

What's the best way to deal with the Super Giant Bros living in the Black Gulch, by the way? I mostly use hit & run tactics, but is that the way to do it?

I just spammed arrows at them until they died. Was boring but it had to be done. Very few of them in the game though (thankfully).

 

[sullynathan]

So I installed DS2 and played about 20 minutes of it after playing 14 hours of Dark Souls.

The very first thing I notice is how it doesn't feel as grim as Dark Souls, the 2nd big thing is the controls and how the weightiness is gone. It doesn't feel as fast and as impactful as bloodbornes combat nor does it feel as weighty and slow as Dark souls but at the same time, it still feels good on its own. I chose the swordsman or whatever because he can use two swords and I finally got into combat, combat felt a little bit finicky compared to DS.

I got out and see a fully sunny place like this, first of a Souls game that I've played. It's very weird, the combination of seeing so many characters and a sunny place this early on into the game.

I met the guy with the giant blue greatsword and fought him to test how good I was/how good the combat is and man I really like it. The combat is very fluid especially with the new implementation of using two swords. I killed this guy easily and got his sword. It made me question whether DS2 is easier than DS1 or if I've gotten better in souls games from my experience with DS1 & Bloodborne. I'll be uninstalling it for now and come back after I beat Dark souls.

 

[Caconym]

Two questions:
1. Do you know about Power Stance, right? It's the main shtick of dual-wielding.
2. Is it the Scholar of the First Sin edition? It would be a crying shame of epic proportions to miss all the DLC goodness (and some other extra things in Sin).

 

[sullynathan]

It's scholar of the first sin.
I don't know about any power stance or anything like that, I only installed the game to check it out and see how different it is from DS

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Power stance is when you have two same weapons equipped in both hands and you have x1.5 of their requirements, you can hold down Y and get a completely new set of moves. The weapons have to be of the same type, not exact replicas.

 

[sullynathan]

Hmm, I only used the weapons that came with the swordsman class

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Hmm, I only used the weapons that came with the swordsman class

you did not have enough dex/str to power stance your starting short sword/scimitar. so pressing Y on controller did not put you in power-stance.

dont kill bernhard next time. he is a bro and you can get his weapon by doing his quest.

 

[sullynathan]

Hmm, I only used the weapons that came with the swordsman class

you did not have enough dex/str to power stance your starting short sword/scimitar. so pressing Y on controller did not put you in power-stance.

dont kill bernhard next time. he is a bro and you can get his weapon by doing his quest.

I was just testing the combat system otherwise I wouldn't have killed him.

 

[Amazing chest]

I played DS2 shortly after it was released, and disliked it. I got the Scholar of the First Sin edition few months ago, thinking I have to give it another chance. Still don't see why people keep playing it, and why they defend it, and why in the world would they think it's better than DS1. There is nothing excellent about it. I can't play more than 30 minutes, before I come across some stupid design decision. Apparently the game was extremely rushed with problems in development, and it shows. So how can people prefer a rushed & incomplete game, over a game that had actual thought put into it? PvP? Cloth physics?

Please explain, what's so good about this game? To me it feels like you have to seriously lower your standards to enjoy this game, ignoring countless problems that will find a way to annoy you.

 

[Mozg]

If I want to play a souls game (not BB, 'cause I don't have a PS4) and I don't want circle strafe backstab to be the ideal technique on every enemy that can be backstabbed DS2 is my only choice. It has easily the best NG+ crap, and bonfire ascetics make doing whatever level of NG+ I like without bullshit easy. And if I want to do PVP (on the side, souls latency is too retarded to go full dueling tryhard) it's the one that doesn't have 1-frame lagstabs.

If I were gonna pick a non-BB souls game for someone that hasn't played one, I'd say DS1, no question. I was down on DS2 when I'd just finished a vanilla run.

 

[Amazing chest]

Fair points!

Is it possible to play this game effectively? I'm having trouble parrying even the hollowest of soldiers, and I wouldn't even care to try it with Heide & Alonne knights. I'm fairly decent at parries in DS1, but in DS2 I can't seem pull them off regularly. Is it just me, or can I blame the enemy movesets? I'm fairly certain there's some attacks that are impossible to parry.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Still enjoying my playthrough of the DLCs more or less. Unfortunately I've hit a snag once or twice at the Fume Knight and the gank squad bosses in the challenge area for Sunken King. It got to the point where I gave in and got a trial for PS Plus just for summons. Now I'm fighting Sir Alonne and good god is he tough with the NPC summons. I wish I had people but I think my grinding earlier knocked me way out of the average SM so I don't really have a choice but summons or solo. He might not be so bad once the area to him is completely cleared of enemies so my resources aren't drained and I'm not losing all my souls over and over. For now though, he's freaking tough but a great way to end this.

EDIT: Well I just beat him with the summons. They are great for drawing his fire and this time they managed to survive the whole fight. Now to find that last ashen idol.

 

[Caim]

Still enjoying my playthrough of the DLCs more or less. Unfortunately I've hit a snag once or twice at the Fume Knight and the gank squad bosses in the challenge area for Sunken King. It got to the point where I gave in and got a trial for PS Plus just for summons. Now I'm fighting Sir Alonne and good god is he tough with the NPC summons. I wish I had people but I think my grinding earlier knocked me way out of the average SM so I don't really have a choice but summons or solo. He might not be so bad once the area to him is completely cleared of enemies so my resources aren't drained and I'm not losing all my souls over and over. For now though, he's freaking tough but a great way to end this.

EDIT: Well I just beat him with the summons. They are great for drawing his fire and this time they managed to survive the whole fight. Now to find that last ashen idol.

Alonne can be a bitch, yes. But he's got a cool stage for a fight.

As for the final idol... well, did you get the one at the very beginning and the one at the very end? Furthermore there are two locations off the beaten path that you might want to check:

Two locations that you might want to check

The smaller side tower and the narrow hallways in the central tower. These are the most dangerous to get to, and there's a good chance you get cursed once or twice.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Still enjoying my playthrough of the DLCs more or less. Unfortunately I've hit a snag once or twice at the Fume Knight and the gank squad bosses in the challenge area for Sunken King. It got to the point where I gave in and got a trial for PS Plus just for summons. Now I'm fighting Sir Alonne and good god is he tough with the NPC summons. I wish I had people but I think my grinding earlier knocked me way out of the average SM so I don't really have a choice but summons or solo. He might not be so bad once the area to him is completely cleared of enemies so my resources aren't drained and I'm not losing all my souls over and over. For now though, he's freaking tough but a great way to end this.

EDIT: Well I just beat him with the summons. They are great for drawing his fire and this time they managed to survive the whole fight. Now to find that last ashen idol.

Alonne can be a bitch, yes. But he's got a cool stage for a fight.

As for the final idol... well, did you get the one at the very beginning and the one at the very end? Furthermore there are two locations off the beaten path that you might want to check:

Two locations that you might want to check

The smaller side tower and the narrow hallways in the central tower. These are the most dangerous to get to, and there's a good chance you get cursed once or twice.

Yeah I found it right after. Also loved the boss music for Alonne and Sinh. Hoping that the Ivory King DLC holds up decently to those.

 

[Gentle Player]

Still enjoying my playthrough of the DLCs more or less. Unfortunately I've hit a snag once or twice at the Fume Knight and the gank squad bosses in the challenge area for Sunken King. It got to the point where I gave in and got a trial for PS Plus just for summons. Now I'm fighting Sir Alonne and good god is he tough with the NPC summons. I wish I had people but I think my grinding earlier knocked me way out of the average SM so I don't really have a choice but summons or solo. He might not be so bad once the area to him is completely cleared of enemies so my resources aren't drained and I'm not losing all my souls over and over. For now though, he's freaking tough but a great way to end this.

EDIT: Well I just beat him with the summons. They are great for drawing his fire and this time they managed to survive the whole fight. Now to find that last ashen idol.

Alonne can be a bitch, yes. But he's got a cool stage for a fight.

As for the final idol... well, did you get the one at the very beginning and the one at the very end? Furthermore there are two locations off the beaten path that you might want to check:

Two locations that you might want to check

The smaller side tower and the narrow hallways in the central tower. These are the most dangerous to get to, and there's a good chance you get cursed once or twice.

Yeah I found it right after. Also loved the boss music for Alonne and Sinh. Hoping that the Ivory King DLC holds up decently to those.

Enjoy unicorn rape and 2cat.

 

[Gentle Player]

A tip for those struggling in Frozen Outskirts: use Silver Talismans or the Chameleon spell. Those naughty horses only spawn during the blizzard. Stay still, hidden and cloaked during the storm and only move when it ceases, and the bastards won't even touch you. You can reach the tiger fuckers scot free as long as you don't have summons.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

A tip for those struggling in Frozen Outskirts: use Silver Talismans or the Chameleon spell. Those naughty horses only spawn during the blizzard. Stay still, hidden and cloaked during the storm and only move when it ceases, and the bastards won't even touch you. You can reach the tiger fuckers scot free as long as you don't have summons.

You can also just not trigger their spawns at all if you follow a specific path.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I spent more time learning how to run through the location than learning how to beat any boss in the entire game. That shit is ridiculous.

 

[Mozg]

If you equip the stone ring a great-hammer R2 smash will pancake the horses. It doesn't help all that much because they have hyperarmor on most of their animations, but when it works it works.

 

[Mozg]

Fair points!

Is it possible to play this game effectively? I'm having trouble parrying even the hollowest of soldiers, and I wouldn't even care to try it with Heide & Alonne knights. I'm fairly decent at parries in DS1, but in DS2 I can't seem pull them off regularly. Is it just me, or can I blame the enemy movesets? I'm fairly certain there's some attacks that are impossible to parry.

Missed this post somehow. Parries are much weaker in DS2, particularly with medium shields. They take longer to become active from when you hit the button and have fewer active parry frames. Heide sword knights are one of the better enemies to do it on, though - if you hold a shield up in front of them they'll either do a very fast attack you'll block or a slow chop you can react to and parry. There are unparryable attacks but I don't know them very well.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

There are some small shields with which it's practically impossible to mess up a parry. Read their descriptions, you'll know that it's a parry shield when you see it.

 

[Amazing chest]

Missed this post somehow.

Parries are much weaker in DS2, particularly with medium shields. They take longer to become active from when you hit the button and have fewer active parry frames. Heide sword knights are one of the better enemies to do it on, though - if you hold a shield up in front of them they'll either do a very fast attack you'll block or a slow chop you can react to and parry. There are unparryable attacks but I don't know them very well.

My posts need to approved before they become visible, which can take days. In the meanwhile, I read about the parry mechanics and was able to perform them with with a small shield. Well, the hollows with halberds and the Syan knight in Forest were easy enough. The hollows with greatswords have two attacks that look the same, one is fast and the other is slow.

It's a shame that you can't parry reliably with a two-handed katana for example, especially when the animation seems fast enough. I get the reasoning, and the various changes in DS2 look good on paper, but can be disappointing/mildy frustrating while playing.

 

[sullynathan]

Does dark souls 2 improve on summoning other people into co op?